Former presidency spokesman arrested

Yasser Ali, former spokesman for the presidency under ousted president Mohamed Morsi(Photo Public Domain)

Yasser Ali, former spokesman for the presidency under ousted president Mohamed Morsi, was arrested on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Interior said that it arrested Ali in a Dokki apartment, from where he was transferred to Dokki Police Station.

Ali was handed 15 days detention pending investigation and faces charges relating to allegedly attempting to aid former prime minister Hisham Qandil’s escape by allowing him to hide on his property.

The former presidential spokesman is also charged with joining a terrorist organisation and aiding it, and inciting violence and rioting according to state-owned Al-Ahram. The news agency added that Ali denied that he had aided Qandil in his alleged attempted escape and his membership in the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ali was transferred to Tora prison on Tuesday evening. He was Morsi’s campaign manager and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party’s media committee in the 2012 presidential race and was appointed as spokesman for the presidency by a presidential decree following Morsi’s victory.

In February, Ali was made head of the Egyptian Cabinet Information Centre.

Qandil was arrestedlast week, and the Ministry of Interior said he had been caught in a “mountainous path” with a smuggler while attempting to flee to Sudan.

He had been sentenced to one year in prison on 17 April for failing to implement an Administrative Court verdict annulling the privatisation of Tanta Flax and Oil Company. The verdict was upheld by the Dokki Court of Appeals on 30 September.

The former prime minister is also being held at Tora prison, along with Ali, and much of the senior Muslim Brotherhood leadership that has been arrested as part of a wide security crackdown on the group and its supporters.